h4x354x0r
computing geek, hackysacker
h4x354x0r
Return to Red Shorts in October
Yes, the black shorts will be back. I plan to rotate each pair of shorts in turn. I also have a specific rotation for my footbags: the PhatTyre Sport, Mr. Softy, Fattie (original), Repeat, and The Man. I'm trying to stick to one full song per footbag, one taped rally per song. Discipline and Regimen. I haz them!
I would be inclined to tape later rallies with each bag, after I've adjusted to each one, but this week I was killing the first rally with each new bag/song, so I started filming that. Unfortunately my best super rally on tape won't export out of my camera (MiniDV) correctly. Still, the one I could post isn't too bad; 45 consecutive 2+ adds.
I started early-ish. The weather has been phenomenal! Reaching ~60 deg. F. around 9:30, sunny, usually not too windy early in the morning. Having the students around is so motivating! I ended up putting in 2:45 and only stopped because I had afternoon appointments. One more epic session this length, and I will meet my annual footbag goal. Here's hoping for continued great weather!
2:45 / 57:15 - Thanks for tuning in!
Black Shorts Debut
That's right, I've gotten a new pair of footbag shorts. Shout goes out to my honey for getting them for me; I love the new shorts, love you, thank you so much!
Great weather, great time, felt great, kicked well, had an awesome time! Mizzou students are the best. I get all kinds of props from these peeps. I've got another in-depth student interview project in the works, did an impromptu 30-second interview for another project, and wound up on who knows how many other cell phones and cameras today.
I remembered to search Twitter after my session, and found 5 tweet-outs. My favorite? the hashtag #badass. And, as usual, the words old and shirtless top the word cloud. Grooming the "Weird Old Guy" image? I'm doin' it rite!
Feeling great today too, smoking through 2:15 of high-energy oldschool before the first twinges of muscle cramps. I had a meeting coming up, I had to stop anyway. There was none of the popcorn calves or muscle cramps today; in fact I was able to hammer the bike pretty hard on my way home at the end of the day.
Oh, I also decided to give my PhatTyre Pro to some some complete stranger, because he said he liked my videos and asked if I had an old footbag I could send him. Since my PhatTyre Pro was a gift to me, I decided to pass it on. Best wishes yoyoskater! Shred it up!
2:00 last week, 2:15 this week, I'm up to 54:30. Thanks for tuning in!
Roots n Blues n Barbecue Fest
Sorry, no video this week. Bringing along my video equipment is too much for the uncertainty of a music festival like this. I need simplicity and mobility: water, towel, footbags. Bicycle.
My experience shows why. Ticket prices had doubled, and I didn't want to pay $35 to play footbag (if allowed to) inside the gates for just a couple hours. I wanted a level, paved place just outside the fencing where I could hear the music. But the fencing and barricades were well designed to foil my plans.
I found one decent spot near the Peace Park stage and kicked to one band for maybe 15 minutes until they broke set. I decided to check out some other spots again, taking off on my bicycle. It started raining! I ended up spending almost 30 minutes alternately seeking shelter from rain, or looking for a halfway dry spot to kick.
Thank goodness I was traveling light! I was about to give up and go back home. I had stopped in front of a checkpoint, beyond which was a potential kicking spot that was still outside the wristband gate proper. One of the volunteers, of course, asked me if they could help me find my way.
"No, I'm actually looking for a place to play Hacky Sack." I said, staring intently at an empty stretch of sidewalk, dry and sheltered by some trees, just past them and some cones.
"Hey... " the other volunteer started. "...aren't you that amazing guy that I used to see play on campus years ago?"
"Speakers Circle?" I asked, then, without waiting for an answer, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's me."
I got the kicking spot. 
It turns out this guy used to roam campus with a camera, and catch me kicking in Speakers Circle sometimes, nearly 15 years ago. Another volunteer at the actual wristband gate turned out to know me through the local newspaper discussion boards. He was delighted to have me kick right there, just outside the fence on a nice wide piece of sidewalk, where I could hear the band perfectly.
It stopped raining, too.
The rest of the session was awesome! People coming or going from the festival kept bunching up at the gate to watch, often pulling out smartphones or cameras for a quick shot or giving me props. The volunteer kept taking me up when people stopped. A number of people obviously knew about me already, greeting me with my preferred "Hack Man" moniker.
Sweet!
Rarely does a session experience turn around like that. In the end, I was very pleased. And exhausted. I felt great. A day later, I'm still in the halo of euphoria. I love freestyle footbag!
1:45 / 50:15 - Thanks for tuning in!
48th Birthday Footbag Bash!
And, a celebration of over 30 years of playing footbag!
(slightly marred by prosthletyzers...)
Overall, a great day, a great birthday treat to spend a couple hours kicking on Speakers Circle. I played well, but the heat and the sun together really took it out of me!
I'm about to give Speakers Circle up for dead. Jeb and the hoards of his variants dominates the circle all day, every day. I haven't been able to kick there during session without a conflict with these people for a couple of years now. Never a break, never a shred of courtesy, never even the vaguest consideration of sharing the space. Not even today, on my 48th birthday, 30-year celebration session.
Today's group was a particularly (cough) righteous (cough) group. I swear I had to ask one of them to stop prosthletyzing to me over 10 times in a row. Another kept coming over, suggesting I move elsewhere, asking when I would leave, just being... abrasive. Most of them made snide comments about my footbag while they were hogging the circle.
Oh well... I still had a great time kicking and got lots of props from the students. I didn't shoot much video, just 4:20 worth over 2 hours, but... I wrote stuff like "It's Hack Man's 48th Birthday!" and "Celebrating Over 30 Years of Kicking!" in sidewalk chalk around the circle, and "Hacky Circle," and of course my wacky internet handle, h4x354x0r!
I'm very pleased to be celebrating over 30 years of footbag. It's been an incredible journey. I've met incredible people. The gift of footbag has been one of the most powerful positive forces in my life. I grew up, emotionally, in the footbag community. It took a long time. I'd like to thank the footbag community for their incredible patience, and ask forgiveness for being such a flaming fucking ass sometimes. 
Footbag really changed my life. It was that spark of inspriation, of passion, dedication, purpose, and the joys and rewards of hard work. It was, for lack of a better analogy, my salvation. Because footbag did so much for me, I felt compelled to share. I traveled. I competed. I ran tournaments and clubs.
It took me 15 years (and a couple of kids) to realize footbag was MY salvation, but it wasn't going to be EVERYONE'S salvation. Yeah, slow learner there
It's still totally awesome, because footbag can still be my salvation - even if it isn't anyone else's. I've loved footbag since that first circle, where for one of the first times in my life I was encouraged to keep trying an activity with a group, despite the fact that I sucked. That gave me so much momentum that I ended up getting pretty freaking good (for my day). And, I still love playing footbag today, just as much as I ever did. More than ever, in fact.
At this point, I would go so far as to claim my weekly footbag sessions as spiritual. I drink a gallon of water and sweat it all out, cleansing my body. I lose myself in the music and the motion. I push myself. I inspire students. I get my funky groove on. I completely exhaust myself. People are always grabbing a quick shot of me with their phones and cameras. It rocks! It almost always leaves me with an incredible sense of physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.
Maybe I should try to declare Hacky Sack my official religion. But, why bother? I believe it is, regardless, official declaration or not. It works for me.
Keep being beautiful, everyone!
2:00/ 48:30 - Thanks for tuning in!
The Follow at Courthouse Square
On arrival at City Hall, I could hear a band playing in the distance...
Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!! It turns out to be The Follow, playing a block and a half away at Courthouse Square, where the Twilight Festivals used to be held on Thursdays, years ago. It's probably been over 10 years since I first got to kick to them, and instantly became a devoted stalker fan when they played at the festivals. One time, they even had to ask me to stop kicking when they were playing in the tiny Walnut Street park. I was getting WAY too wild that evening.
Since the end of the Twilight festivals, I kinda lost track of them. So finding them in town, by sheer luck, was a very special treat. The Follow was here this time to raise money and collect school supplies for Joplin Missouri US, which got struck by a devastating tornado this spring. This band is so awesome... in so many ways! Thank you for sharing your time and passion for music to help your brothers and sisters. You ROCK.
The final bonus for the day: my daughter even showed up and kicked with me for a bit.
Next week is my big 48th Birthday Footbag Bash. I'm headed back to Speakers Circle for a late morning session, roughly 10-noon. The best part? A record enrollment of students is back on campus!
It's been 3 weeks since the last blog post. Gotta do the accounting thing...
2:00, 2:00, 1:30 / 46:30 - Thanks for tuning in!
Concert Groupie
Downtown concert got moved, I moved with it.
The Blue Note had to change concert locations because too many business owners were complaining about the 9th street closing disruption. The new venue is totally awesome for a small concert: a private park next to MoJo's they can cordon off. There's no place to kick inside the area, but there are a few places nearby. I tried the Cafe Berlin parking lot.
I started late, because of the heat, and with the first act of the concert, so I only had about an hour of sunlight. After that, streetlights. I finally packed it in at an hour forty five. Another great session, I didn't really play all that great but got tons of props from the crowd.
1:45 / 41:00 - Thanks for tuning in!
Adds new Phat Tyre footbag to lineup
Concert downtown tonight. Music. And People. Everywhere!
Thanks to the generosity of Flying Clipper / Dirtbag Footbags, I have added a brand new Phat Tyre to my rotation of footbags. Tonight I was changing bags each time I took a towel / water break.
The Phat Tyre is obviously a worthy footbag. I had some really good rallies with it. I like it a lot, but I was having trouble adjusting to the weight and size compared to my other footbags. 80g! I'm definitely keeping it in my rotation. I can't lie and say there's no difference between this $12 footbag, and the custom freestyler-made footbags like my Abshires. But the Phat Tyre, all in all, is still a pretty good bag.
I bet it works great for the intermediate hack circles, and that's one reason I like it so much. Having a more durable "hack circle" bag in my arsenal, that I'm used to, will be nice.
I got to kick to the entire set of Drew Davis. A wee bit countrified for me, mebbe. But, live music is always inspiring, and there were tons of people coming by. I had an awesome session, and got major props from the crowd. I wish I could have kept kicking as the main attraction Darius Rucker took the stage, but... I was at the 2:15 mark, and I was TOAST.
I also got another journalism student that wants to do a story on me. I had to warn him the J-School profs might be tired of me by now, but he's still gonna make the pitch. I really enjoy being the subject of their projects! It helps sharpen my interview skills, and I usually get a good footbag promotion tool that I can share with the world.
2:15 / 39:15 - Thanks for tuning in!
Three New Footbags!
There's nothing like 3 new footbags to pump me up! All the other forces were against me: rain today, I had to start late to get dry pavement; plus, one of those "heavy lifting, massive contorting" kind of physical work days at work. My back was killing me as I was prepping to kick. It even felt very strained for a while after I started.
But those three new Abshire footbags? They delivered the Total. Freaking. Smackdown. on the negatives. I wasn't carving up the difficult moves, but I was still playing well and keeping the bag off the ground. I had an awesome time tonight!
In fact, I had such a good time, I'm officially declaring today my 30th anniversary of playing footbag. I don't really know the exact date, it was probably actually later in the summer, but I'm tired of waiting, and believe these 3 new footbags are my anniversary present.
Yes, BTW, it was hot and extremely humid. I hit total saturation, even to the point where my socks started 'sklishing' inside my shoes. Remind me, I need to bring even more towels. Two aren't enough.
LATE UPDATE: Flying Clipper is also going to send me one of their new Phat Tyre Footbags! I will soon have four footbags in my kicking rotation. I feel rich
2:00 / 37:00 - Thanks for tuning in!
The Half-Year Mark
Holy cow I completely saturated everything I was wearing today.
Hottest day here so far this year: 98+F, heat index over 105F.
This, July 30th, is the half-year mark. It's a great time to assess progress towards my footbag goal. How am I doing? I put in 2:15 last week, and 1:30 this week, so I'm at 35 hours for the year so far. I'm almost exactly 4 weeks ahead on my goal of 60 hours per year playing footbag.
Some might think, "60 hours for a whole year? That's nothing!" But, I usually only count solo freestyling towards that time. Sometimes I'd really like to kick more, but... the situation is what it is. When I do a 2-hour session, it takes me several days to fully recover. Even if my schedule allowed it, kicking just twice a week would probably be more than I could physically sustain. Remember, I'm old.
Speaking of old, I'm only two weeks away from what I'm calling my 30th footbag anniversary. I don't really know exactly when I first kicked a Hacky Sack, but it was *sometime* in July, I think, almost certainly after the 4th. The memory of my first hack circle 30 years ago outside a condo unit in Dillon, CO, is actually rather vivid. There's just no timestamp on it.
I'll blog more about my 30th footbag anniversary when I actually get there.
1:30/35:00 - Thanks for tuning in!
Speakers Circle Summer Welcome
w00t! Another solid 2-hr session!
I feared the sudden change to heat, but it's apparently been the best thing for my game. Last 2 sessions rank as best of season so far. It was actually very nice today, with high clouds diffusing the sunlight, very light wind, moderate temps, and kids to show off to. What more could I ask?
2:00 / 31:15 - A session's worth past the halfway point, two weeks ahead of the half year point. 3 sessions up on my goals, not great, but I'll take it.
Thanks for tuning in!